Santo Domingo Travel Guide

Columbus Lighthouse Monument

This mammoth structure was built on the eastern shore of the Ozama River in the early 1990s, to commemorate both Santo Domingo's status as the oldest European city in the Americas, and the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World. The building is 693ft (211m) long, and built in the shape of a cross at a 45-degree angle. It houses what the Dominican Republic claims are the remains of Columbus himself, and is fitted with intense lights which project the image of the cross into the sky at night. The monument was designed by English architect J.L. Gleave, who won an international competition for the design after 455 plans were submitted by architects from 48 different countries. The building is also the repository for numerous documents and artefacts associated with the early Spanish colonial times.